Urdu

Qur’an translation of the week #211: A new genre of Qurʾan translations

Today, we will look at Urdu Quran, the first Urdu translation authored by a Christian scholar, Imad-ud-Din Lahiz, who converted from Islam to Christianity. During the nineteenth century, British India was a melting pot of various peoples and faiths where Muslims, Hindus, and Christians engaged in polemical debates as part of their missionary endeavors, each seeking […]

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Qur’an translation of the week #209: ‘The Qurán’: A Christian version of a Muslim-authored Qur’an Translation

In this post, we will examine what is likely the first Urdu translation produced within a Christian missionary context: ‘The Qurán’. Published in 1844 by the Presbyterian Mission Press of Allahabad, it features Shāh ʿAbd al-Qādir’s very prominent and influential Urdu translation transcribed into Latin script. Shāh ʿAbd al-Qādir’s rendition was completed at the end of the eighteenth century and originally

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Qur’an translation of the week #171: Muhammad Ali’s Urdu Translation: Bayān al-Qurʾān

This week we will take a closer look at Muhammad Ali’s 1923 Urdu translation, Bayān al-Qurʾān. Muhammad Ali, a prominent Ahmadi scholar, ascended to the leadership of the Lahore branch following a schism within the Ahmadiyya movement in 1914. In a previous post, we introduced Muhammad Ali and his influential English Qur’an translation of 1917

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Qur’an translation of the week #163: The first complete Ahmadi Urdu translation

Mīr Muḥammad Saʿīd (d. 1924) authored the first complete Ahmadi Urdu translation of the Qur’an, which was published in 1915 under the title Qurʾān Majīd Mutarjam: maʿa tafsīr awḍaḥ al-Qurʾān musammā bih tafsīr-i aḥmadī. Originating from Hyderabad, Mīr Muḥammad Saʿīd held the position of local chairman (amīr) within the Ahmadiyya movement. According to Ahmadi sources,

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Qur’an translation of the week #97: Tafsīr-i Uthmānī – ‘Restoring’ an old translation

What do you do when the language of a Qur’an translation becomes outdated, but you still want readers to benefit from the work? One answer is provided by Maḥmūd Ḥasan’s Urdu Qur’an translation, which was later included in the Tafsīr-i Uthmānī. Maḥmūd Ḥasan (d. 1920), who became later known as ‘Shaykh al-Hind’, was born in

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Qur’an translation of the week #78: Tafsīr al-Qur’ān wa-huwa al-Hudā wa ‘l-Furqān’- Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s exegesis and Urdu translation of the Qur’an

What role does modern science play in our understanding of the Qur’an? This week we will look at the Urdu translation/exegesis of Sayyid Ahmad Khan (d. 1898), who tried to bridge the gap between ancient Islamic tradition and modern science. Sayyid Ahmad Khan was born in Delhi in 1817 into an Ashraf family. After the

Qur’an translation of the week #78: Tafsīr al-Qur’ān wa-huwa al-Hudā wa ‘l-Furqān’- Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s exegesis and Urdu translation of the Qur’an Read More »

Qur’an translation of the week #59: The first complete verbatim Urdu Qur’an translation

In previous posts (QTOTW 39 and 46), we have introduced the Persian Qur’an translation authored by Shāh Walī Allāh Dihlawī (1703–1762), and his son Shāh ʿAbd al-Qādir Dihlawī’s Urdu translation, both of which had a huge impact on subsequent Qur’an translations produced in the Indian subcontinent during the nineteenth century. Father and son both opted

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Qur’an translation of the week #53: Nazir Ahmad’s Urdu Qur’an translation

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Indian subcontinent witnessed a significant increase in the production of Qurʾan translations into vernacular languages. The continuing rise in literacy rates, accompanied by falling printing costs, enabled more people to engage with the Qur’an and explore its meanings at an individual level. This, in turn, created

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